Celestron Performance

Doomsday74 · Guest

I have a celestron powerseeker 114Eq and recently found mars but was a little disappointed with the image. Is this about normal for telescopes of this size??

AstroBoy · Guest

Where you using the 4mm eyepiece? The 3X barlow?

Guest · Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2005 10:14 pm Post subject:

For this pic I used the 20mm and the 3x barlow. I used the 4mm but it wasn't much better.

AstroBoy · Guest

Assuming your eyepieces are marked correctly, You should see a significant difference in magnification between the 20mm and the 4mm eyepieces. The 20mm, even with the barlow, is giving you less magnification (135x) than you would get with the 4mm alone (225x).

You should be able to get decent results with the 4mm alone, but the 4mm with the 3x Barlow is probably too much for the scope. At 675x, the image will probably be pretty dim and soft. Still, it's worth trying. You might want to invest in some eyepieces that give you greater magnification than the 20mm when used with the barlow. A 10mm would give you 90x without the Barlow and 270x with, and can give you better eye relief than the 4mm.

For astrophotography, the other issue is your camera set up. What camera, what resolution (if digital), exposure time, focus and zoom (if using a point&shoot), etc. With a long exposure, you can get a good shot even with an image that is dim to the naked eye.

If you're serious about astrophotography, you should get equipment suited to the task such as a film or digital SLR with interchangeable lens and the appropriate camera adapter for your telescope. You can find film SLRs that will work just fine for much less than a digital SLR, it just depends on what you want to spend and what else you might want to use the camera for...

Guest · Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 9:16 pm Post subject: Doomsday74

After being disappointed of mars I looked for saturn. The first time I searched and searched and couldnt pinpoint it but then the next clear night I finally found it and was truely amazed. I think now I will have to invest in a better camera. Here is just a sample but no where near the quality with the naked eye. Thanks to everyone at optics planet for one of my first truely amazing sights!

Guest